Le saut périlleux

A beautifully filmed story, the two film comparisons that come to mind are The Virgin Suicides and Morvern Callar. All of these films feature young girls, coping with circumstances that throw them into a spiral - an internal spiral - filmed with grace, attention to detail and a good ear for the soundtrack. There are difficult moments here, where I found myself saying 'Don't do it, don't do it', but she does because inexperience and lack of confidence make for poor choices. As soon as you can place yourself in her shoes, you will find this film moving, and very clearly (and poetically) observed. I recommend this film very highly, both for its clean and original voice - and very Australian voice - and the sympathy we feel for its very real lead characters.

There is a moment in Cate Shortland's "Somersault" where Joe (Sam Worthington), a surly and emotionally closed-off young man confused over the feelings he has for his kind-of girlfriend Heidi (Abbie Cornish), shows up at the home of an openly gay acquaintance of his mother's and—after downing several shots and spilling his guts to the older man—follows him into the hallway and makes an awkward pass at him by planting a drunken kiss on him. It's a surprising twist in both Joe's development as a character and the movie itself, but it's just one of several similarly unexpected--and unexplained--moments that define Shortland's oddly compelling drama about sexual coming-of-age. Joe is not the main character, nor does the film ever revisit his attempt at same-sex experimentation, and it's that vague attention to detail that is the most frustrating aspect of the movie. The story actually belongs to Heidi, an evidently emotionally troubled teenager with no concept of propriety who, for no apparent reason, decides to make a pass at her mother's hunky boyfriend. When mom comes home and catches the two kissing, she freaks, and Heidi runs away to a neighboring town. There, she shacks up in the small flat of an empathetic motel owner, gets a job at the local BP service station, and has sex with a string of guys. It is Joe, however, that most captivates her, and their awkward and strained attempts at forging a relationship are some of the most authentic captured on celluloid. Both of them are plagued by troubles that are never explored (apparently, Heidi once tried to commit suicide, as is evidenced by the scars on her wrists), but as they begin to open up to each other, the movie becomes more fascinating and oddly romantic. Shortland's direction is as languid as her ambling script (a bit more back story on the characters would have made them more three- dimensional), but her style is effective nonetheless, providing a showcase for the talents of both Worthington and Cornish, two young Aussie up-and-comers who appear to have big futures ahead of them. Grade: B.--Originally published in IN Los Angeles Magazine.

"Somersault" is a fresh spin on the in-over-their heads teenager movie, particularly the mixed-up city girl confusing the well-meaning country boy sub-genre. It is a sophisticated look at the motivations and resourcefulness of a teen age runaway.

In her debut feature, writer/director Cate Shortland poignantly captures a girl's search for love and independence through sex. It isn't often that we see a film about tantalizing jail-bait from the girl's perspective.

The town settings from Canberra to Jindabyne in New South Wales are unusual for Australian films we usually get to see in the U.S., providing an unusual meeting place for cold-weather tourists, the poor in their service industry, and farmers in from cattle stations.

Abbie Cornish is a marvel in the central role. Looking startlingly like the young Nicole Kidman from her early Australian movies such as "Flirting", she morphs from coltish girl to sexual aggressor, even as it's clear she doesn't understand what she's getting herself into by thinking she can live out her fantasy in following one guy after another who she has met on the road. With the glimpses we get of her tumultuous inner world through a childish diary, "Heidi"s naiveté is palpably painful as Cornish projects her at different times in the film as being the character's actual 16 or pretending to be 20 when she thinks she can use sex as a manipulable tool without realizing what creepy situations can result. The subtlety of her performance extends to how differently she relates to men than women, particularly as she keeps seeking out mother figures.

Sam Worthington is heartbreakingly sweet as equally naive, somewhat older "Joe", who clumsily becomes her protector and something more. I wasn't clear, though, about his back story with issues in his past (there's a lot of family secrets all around). The film also comments on bloke culture, including the ambiguous touches of homo-eroticism in male bonding.

The scenes between these two marginalized young people are engrossing with their attraction and hesitation, as they clumsily imitate adult behavior that they can't really handle. Bouncing between maturity and immaturity, tenderness and aggression, they have enough trouble expressing and understanding their feelings without adding sex into the mixture.

A side story with an autistic child leads to a way too didactic discussion about empathy and emotions, with flash cards no less.

The cinematography had a lovely blue haze, but used fuzzy focus too often.

I had some difficulty understanding the male dialogue among thick accents and low sound projection in the Time Square Theater, compounded by the restless male audience, up and down, in and out, slamming doors, who seemed mostly attracted to the film by Cornish's nude scenes.

This film is a creative contrast to American indie films that tend to see young women on the cusp of adulthood more as victims as they experiment with their sexual power, such as "Blue Car" or "Hard Candy", or in commercial fare as innocents, like "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants", let alone male fantasy objects as in "American Beauty". A spate of recent non-American directors have focused on their impact on males, such as in "The Holy Girl (La Niña santa)", "À Tout de Suite (Right Now)", and "Lila Says (Lila dit ça)", with varying degrees of the success of this film in capturing their girl/woman confusion.

I must confess some bias, being a massive fan of the Snowy area :) This film I can see not appealing to those who have never been to the Cooma/Jindabyne area of NSW. They will have no point of reference. For those who have however, this film is simply brilliant. I have stayed at the motel Heidi stayed at. I have visited friends with houses like Joes. The mood/feeling of Heidi around the edges of Lake Jindabyne are uncanny. There is a feeling down there I have not had anywhere else in Australia. A barren, cold feeling that is at once breathtaking and heartbreaking.

Objectively, one could indeed see this movie being light on concerning the plot. In my mind and experiences though, I have never been so engrossed. Heidi and Joes relationship is so tantalising. So possible. It might seem to some as not realistic, but it really is. This is how many, many Australians express themselves ( on a good day! ) It is pure, and wonderful, and simply amazing and I don't care that this may have been the only film close to warranting attention in 2004. It is regardless completely brilliant, and I for one will be holding it close to my heart for a long long time to come.

Australian cinema very rarely gets this close to actual emotion, and this film hits it again and again. Some of it may be contrived or stereotypical, but overall it really is a gem hidden amongst 21st century Australian cinema pap. Enjoy it please :)

So often, Australian films that make it to America are set either in a large city (usually Sydney), the outback (think "Crocodile Dundee " -- if you must) or the deep interior, a la "Rabbit Proof Fence" -- which films always seem to manage to work Ayers Rock in. It comes as a mild surprise, then, to see the bulk of this film set in an alpine-type ski resort burg. The lead performances, by Sam Worthington and especially by Abbie Cornish (here playing, according to the write-up, 16 years old, although I don't remember an exact age being mentioned in the film; I suspect in real life Ms. Cornish may be older than that, but she plays the age most convincingly in any case) are absolutely top-notch; Ms. Cornish's might be said to be award-worthy. The story unfolds at a leisurely pace, and yet there is an underlying tension within the story that works perfectly. Of the mere four films I had the time and money to see at this year's Toronto Film Festival, this was my hands-down favorite.